


Birthday surrpise

by vaguelyobsessed



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Adopted Children, Angst, Father Figure, Military Backstory, Mystery, Past Child Abuse, Secret Past
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 21:57:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8118970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaguelyobsessed/pseuds/vaguelyobsessed
Summary: Clawhauser is an adorable fluffy cheetah who adores pop star Gazelle and doughnuts. He's kind, funny, and sometimes speaks like he's a child. Nobody in the entirety of ZPD could have anticipated his upcoming birthday to be anything but smiles and happiness until it passes with a cryptic note explaining that he had to leave ZPD for a few months and would return. 
Taking the case of the missing Predator personally Chief Bogo goes on hiatus to find his friend and colleague ordering along with him Wolford and Fangmeyer for help. Secrets come out, and a past that neither the chief of ZPD or the oversized Cheetah ever wanted known will surface and mean life or death for the group.





	1. Birthday blues

The day you are born is marked on a calender for your entire life. Every day of that month you will celebrate becoming another year older, survivng the world for yet antoher 12 months. The jolly usually have hundreds of sent cards and the lonely seem to smile a little more thna before. Yet one eternal smile faded on that day, diminished into a tense look of concentration as he packed a suitcase full of basic clothes and toiletries. It seemed to him that the happy day most saw was by far the worst to him, and he glared at the callender as he looked at the red mark thorugh the 30th of June.

He was shockingly strong as he hefted the bags on his thick shoulders and left the small one bedroom apartment he'd called home for ten years after he had originally became a ZPD officer. The door shut softly behind the orange and black feline as he sulked down the hall and to the curb where his car was parked waiting for him. Yet instead of pulling out and driving the fifteen minutes to work he passed the police station with tears brimming in his emotionless eyes and got onto the speedway full of other cars all headding out of Zootopia towards the rough heat of the Chettah-county where the oversized feline had been born.

 

Bact in the police station three boxes of specialty doughnuts sat unopened at the front dest with the words happy birthday writted on the box. Everyone had been told to wait in the front beside the desk to surrpise the officer who came in at the same time every single day ten minutes early for his shift so he could prep his computer and tlak to the other animals there. Yet when an hour ahd passed they were all forced to go about their usual duties presuming that Clawhauser was simply sick and forgot to call in again. Sometimes happening in the summer when he'd get allergies from the pollen.

"Judy, take over with the theft cases i'm working on for the day. I'm goign to check on Ben." The rowdy, highly easy to anger chief announced, dropping two theft cases on the bunny's desk and grabbing the boxes of doughnuts to take to the only mamal all the police officers are without any doubt fond of. Somehting baout the Cheetah having ensnared everyone's hearts to him, thus making him utterly missed when he wasn't there.

The chief would never admit to having been to the officer's home every time he got sick to check on him, nor being given his own key to do so by the Cheetah himself. Dropping off files and sometimes reading material he throught the zeleaous friend would like. Though he did admit that he knew the officer better than any would imagine, so when he didn't spot the usual clutter all over the appartment or the large feline on the couch watching reruns of some old comedy show he was more than concerned. Only when he found hte note seated on the chair that Bogo would normally sit and talk with him from did he call in a missing mamal to the department and storm down to the landlady, a kind older sheep who hadn't heard him leave this morning, but had spotted him taking trash bags outside from his appartment late last night when she was coing back from dinner with her son.

"Thank you madam. I'm sure he's jsut fine and frogot to tell us he was going to be gone today." He lied, the not ein his hand worrying the large Buffalo as he hurried back to the station to find everyone outside his locked office at the call about him ebing missing from an unknown officer. None of those assigned to the front knwoing that the cheif had left and had simply driven everyone to his office until his arival.

"Wolford, find Fangmeyer and pull him from whatever he's doing immediately." He snaps to one of his most trusted officers, "Both of you report to my office in one hour." 

In that hour every traffic camera in Zootopia was being searched for the vehicle of the missing mammal. The words of the note burning the mind of the worried animal as he scanned the path that the vehicle took out of the city and failing to follow it beyond a certain point. Finally managing to jot down the probable places that eh would be before a dark colored wolf and a tiger both padded nearly silently into the room obedient of the cheif's wishes for them to be there despite the undercover work they were both doing.

"This is a personal favor to me and Clawhauser, he left the city instead of ciming in for his shift and cleared out his appartment. Left a criptic note for me to find, and I am under the impression that he is not acting under his own motives. I'm asking you to come with me to find him." He spoke fact, handing off the letter to Wolford's careful paws who read over it before nodding his accecptance of the unpaid job before Fangmeyer did the same before handing it back.

"We'll begin by following his moves. He proceeded along the expressway out of town and disapeared from survalence after passing out of the city towards the desert outlying towns. I suspect he's likely there for protectiong against some form of threat that he hadn't told us about not linked to the ZPD. Likely the wave of predator hatred had caught him in their web and began scaring him." The buffalo revealed, showing them the screen of the retreating car with a crying clawhauser int he driver's seat as he left the city he had loved. His emotions proving that it wasn't under hsi own power leaving the city.

"Sir, about two months prior i was spekaing with him about going back home for the upsoming holiday. He told me he lived in a outlying town called Chettah-county before becoming an officer as a younger animal." Wolford remembered, pointing to the colection of chettah towns that was once called chettah county btu had long since broken up.

"Good, we will begin there. Odds are soemone may have noticed him coming or going through somewhere." He grunted, leading the rest of the trio out and assigning Officer Mchorn as temporary chief in hsi absense.


	2. who are you?

The town was nearly deserted as the trio drove in the chief's vehicle. Underover as they came, yet still attracted attention in their casual outfits. The gas station clerk had pointed them to the town he suspected Clawhauser to have been from due to his preference for sweets and how he'd come inside and spoken like thye were long lost friends as he had the habit of doing.

"You two do a perimeter check while I knock." Bogo ordered, the other two leaving him to circle the house hands hovering over their concealed tazers and tranq guns connected to their belts. The deep blue furred buffalo resisted the urge to knock down the door and demand that Ben return with him back to Zootopia. Though he didn't have to wait long until he was looking down to a few adorable little kids all being Cheetahs with identical markings as Clawhauser.

"You're Bongo right? Bubby said you'd be here." A girl slightly older pulled the small cub aside and looked up at him aprasingly and stoically after she'd spoken.

"You just missed him. Invite the other two in and you can wait for him inside." She invited, holding out a orange fured arm to block the younger cubs as I whistled for the boys to join me. Inside the house was dirty with children's toys. No adults over the age of 15 in sight and no sign they had been for a very long time other than the electricity and water not being turned off.

"Are you all.... Siblings?" Bogo questioned being careful not to be his usual rough self with the children he had frequently had to be in contact with as an officer.

"Nope, Benny isn't anyone's brother either. They call us the unwanted home, Kenneth and Debby take in kids and leave them here. The nannies come in three times a day to clean, cook, and check the kids are all going to school and everything. Why did benny get so fat? He won't tell me anything." She wondered, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her foot in a steady rhythm waiting for an answer.

"He likes food and does desk work. Where did he go?" Just as he spoke he noticed the door opening behind him and the padding of the two young officers inside the house looking around at the young predators around them almost fondly.

"Oh, Benny went on one of his runs. When he visits he runs a lot." She announced, leading the older animals to a fairly clean sitting room lacking a TV or any toys scattered around it.

"Clawhauser runs?" Wolford muttered to himself more than ayone else as we all sat down on a pair of couches facing the young girl.

"Yep." She answered the rhetorical question as they simply stared between each other waiting patiently until they all turned at the voice of Clawhauser cooing after one of the kids and calling them 'cutie patootie' as he moved inside covered in a layer of sweat and calling for the young girl he fondly called Kammie-poo. In one hand he held a drained water bottle the other a towel that he was wiping his neck with when he spotted then through the door and his orange and black ears pressed to his skull, brown eyes darting to the ground ashamed of them already finding him.

"Explain, officer Clawhauser." Bogo demanded angry that he left of his own will with no real explanation or warning.

"I kind of hoped you'd just let me leave, Chief." He told the buffalo turning pink as he adjusted his stance to seem smaller, if it was possible.

"Not happening, now explain." He ordered a bit more harshly than necessary but only a slight feeling of slight anger of being left out of his personal issue leading to leaving.

"As honestly as I trust you, this isn't something even you can fix." He mumbled slightly, turning punk at having to say something mean to someone who had given him so much through his adulthood including a friend.

"Try me." Bogo challenged, the two behind him stepping behind him crossing their arms as if saying _Yeah, try us._.

"Fine, i'll talk while I pact the car up." The chubby animal offered packing up the clothes all stacked neatly in a small chest of drawers in the corner into a few black backpacks.

"Get to it then, Officer." Bogo ordered, as he would any officer under his command.

"Yes sir. When you and I were partners-" The cheetah began as he packed stopped by the harsh laughs of Wolford and fangmeyer who caught harsh glares from both the other inhabitants of the room at their humor.

"Wait you weren't joking..... You were partners? Like..... In the force out on the streets?" Wolford wondered aloud getting a growl in return from the Cheetah.

"Yes, you know that is one of the few things that still make me angry. So like I was _trying_ to tell you...... We did an undercover case in Sahara Square and I was..... For lack of a better word tortured and nearly killed. I took a month off to recuperate and ended up in the middle of a very..... Strange thing happening in the apartment across from mine and ended up unearthing a underground fighting ring that went deeply into hundreds of predators all over Zootopia. Well turns out that they got out of prison lately and came after me. Yesterday afternoon I received a threat against every child in this house for what I did so I came here as protection for them." Clawhauser explained as he finished placing the clothes into the last bag and pulling them both over his right shoulder and moving past the either confused or angry trio.

"Why didn't you register the threat through me? You KNOW I would have taken care of this for you." Bogo offered, but the soft smile from the Cheetah made him pause in his beginnings of a rant about taking care of things himself.

"Chief...... We were partners, friends and still are. You know ic an handle myself.... Despite the flub that makes me extra cuddly I'm still a Cheetah." He reminded him over a shoulder with a shrug.

"If you were so concerned over these kids why are you leaving now that we found you?" fangmeyer wondered at the back of the group, being the newest not overtaken by the same awe as Wolford or being distracted by the conversation.

"I know Bogo, he's about to make a call to child services and get these kids out of here. Unavoidable but... I don't see the point in being here to see it." The usually very happy mammal sighed, a weight settling on his shoulders and a heavy aspect to his brown eyes as they connected to the young Tiger not yet burdened by all the older officer had seen and hidden beneath sweets and pop culture to distract him.

"Boys, can you handle this? I'm going with Ben back to make sure he gets home alright." Bogo wondered to the young boys who both nodded to their elder and authority figure as he climbed into the passenger seat of the old car.

"Ben, you're worrying me. As your only friend I need you to tell me what is really happening. You don't often just allow me to send kids back to the system. I use the term allow loosely of course." He reminded with a chuckle. Nobody could really stop him from making the calls now, even his old partner who taught him what it meant to be a good officer.

"Do you ever wonder about the past? I mean.... Before we were vetted cops?" Clawhauser wondered dreamy look on his face staring into oblivion as he drove them through the town of his raising.

**Author's Note:**

> Short chapter I know, next will be longer. =D


End file.
